IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



With the hog raiser of years of experience, anxious to improve his stock, 

 there are two courses that are open to him. One is to sell off his entire lot 

 of breeding sows and start again, or else keep his own stock and by careful 

 breeding, culling and selecting gradually raise the standard of his stock 

 until he brings it to the level that is consistent with his ideal. 



In both of these instances it is important that the farmer should know 

 what a good hog is. The remarks of the expert who judged the hog car- 

 casses at the International Live Stock Exposition this year show in a few 

 words what the finished hog should be when he is brought to market. Since 

 it is generally reasonable to assume that " like begets like," it is not too 

 much to expect that the same type that the packer wants to find at the stock 

 yards, must also figure prominently in the general style and make-up of the 

 sire and dam. 



In good market breeding brood sows there are certain well-defined char- 

 acteristics that must be constantly kept in mind. In discussing this subject 

 in the last report of .the bureau of animal husbandry, George M. Rommel 

 gives this description of the leading characteristics of a good brood sow, so 

 far as it may be-judged from physical appearance. We quote as follows: 



"The forehead should be broad between the eyes, the throat clean and 

 trim, the neck moderately thin, and the shoulders deep and smooth; the 

 back should be fairly wide and straight, and ample room for the vital organs 

 should be provided by a -good width and depth of chest, well-sprung ribs, 

 straight, deep side — a deep, capacious body from end to end." 



A good sow has a deep chest and a liberal abdomen. A pinched effect in 

 either of these organs is to be. avoided. A good length of body is generally 

 advised by leading breeders and hog raisers, but there is no evidence that 

 additional measure in this section means ;greater fecundity or prolificness. 

 While there can be no hard and fast rule in selecting sows that are long-bod- 

 ied, it is advised that care be observed to see that other good qualities go 

 along with this characteristic. 



The experience of many breeders is to the effect that there are good breed- 

 ing sows in both the long-bodied and the short-bodied type. It seems to have 

 been equally well demonstrated also that both include poor and indifferent 

 breeders. We can see only one*objection in continually selecting the long- 

 bodied sew to the exclusion of all others, and this is the possibility of ulti- 

 mately developing an animal of the long-bodied, coarse-boned, loosely put 

 together type. In such an event the purpose of good breeding to bring out 

 a better market animal would have largely been for naught, inasmuch as 

 there is very little in coarseness of such hogs to commend them to the atten- 

 tion of exacting breeders or discriminating buyers. 



When one has the sow the next consideration is the breeding. We have 

 no hesitation in saying that herein lies, in our estimation, one of the most 

 palpable errors of the modern pig raiser. This is too early breeding of the 

 sows. It is a well recognized fact that an animal must have reached 

 maturity before it is in possession of its breeding organs in their normal 

 strength. When sows are bred while they are yet pigs, and their produce is 

 similarly handled, and this policy is maintained year after year, it is too 

 much to expect that the breeding material in the drove of hogs thus treated 

 should be improving. As a matter of fact, it does not, but is constantly 

 deteriorating. 



